This blog exists purely as a place for me to dump random links and thoughts I have rather than emailing them to my friends. It'll have large amounts of inside jokes. Also there will probably be times when I write "you" or refer to an email. Just pretend that you are reading an email to you. If you don't know me you likely won't find anything here interesting. If you do know me you also will not find anything here interesting.

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

MediTech

I've been reading through these replies about "MediTech" trying to determine if it's some sort of elaborate inside joke I'm not picking up on.

There is a company called MediTech in Massachusetts that uses a derivative language of MUMPS called Magic. I know several programmers that have worked there. There are thousands of engineers writing in this language as we speak.
From what I can remember:

-Only global variables

-Variables must only be capital letters, maximum length 6. If you run out of variables, you must cleverly use them in a routine and set them back to what they are. This means you can't use a name like myVar - you use AAAFD, ZBVCXZ, etc.

-System functions are usually things like ., >, ', ], so code looks like .'AAAF]{\;:..

-Meditech writes all of their own languages, databases, operating systems, tools, etc. You can only write in a non-Meditech language if you get approval from a multi-tiered architectural design board, which barely ever happens

-The founder hated C with undying passion. No one is ever allowed to use C

-All programming hires go through a 6 to 12 month training process to learn the tools, languages, and systems. As they almost exclusively hire non-CS majors, such as math and physics majors, they don't typically have a programming background and don't realize how bizarre the MediTech stack is